Author: Kevin Wondrash

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Kevin Wondrash

St. Thomas More Society focuses on Abraham Lincoln

MADISON — Abraham Lincoln is more a legend than a real person to many people. His famous speeches, his efforts to hold the Union together, and his untimely death overshadow the man who honed his skills as a circuit-riding attorney in Illinois.

At the next meeting of the St. Thomas More Society in the Diocese of Madison, attorney John Skilton will present highlights from “Abraham Lincoln: A Lawyer for the Ages.”

Skilton is an author, lecturer, and leader in the legal community. He has practiced law for 43 years and has given back to the community by serving on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association as well as serving as president of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

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Kevin Wondrash

Conscience must be a ‘Truth-seeking radar’

This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

There is a great service to humanity that is being lost. It is being lost in society and it is being treated with kid gloves even in the Church. This service is to help another person form and follow their conscience.

So lost is this service that it is very quickly becoming illegal. I wish I were speaking in exaggerated hyperbole here, but sadly I am not. To help others form their conscience means to say that this or that is wrong. And to say certain things are wrong has become very dangerous and indeed — close to illegal in our country, and already illegal in Canada.

However, it is, always and everywhere, the right and responsibility of the Church, and of parents, and of good neighbors, to witness to the law of the Lord, to speak the Truth as it is written on our hearts, and to help others to form their conscience.

In fact there is little that is more important because, as we’ll see, it is the path by which we must follow to seek and to attain the blessedness in this life and in the life to come.

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Kevin Wondrash

Venerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli: God’s bridge of love to others

In 1982, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper conducted a survey to name the new bridge that connected Dubuque, Iowa, with Wisconsin and the Diocese of Madison.

The name “Mazzuchelli Bridge” received the most votes, perhaps because of ways Venerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli influenced early Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. It was then submitted to the Dubuque City Council, but the council named the new bridge the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge instead.

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Kevin Wondrash

Grand Mom is still ‘plugging away’

Editor’s note: We are pleased to welcome back our popular “Grand Mom” columnist, Audrey Mettel Fixmer. We published her last column in November of 2012. This week she explains some of the challenges she has faced in the past 14 months. We hope that Audrey will continue to share her wisdom with us as often as possible. God bless you, Audrey!

Our wonderful editor, Mary Uhler, phoned me a couple of weeks ago to tell me that so many of my faithful readers inquired about me that she felt obliged to offer an excuse for my absence.

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Kevin Wondrash

Check authenticity of ‘once in a lifetime’ investment

Q I have always considered my parents to be intelligent and capable of making good decisions, but I wonder if they may be taken in by a new acquaintance who is also in the investment business.

They recently invested in a project that is “going to be huge,” according to the investor. My parents were told not to share too many details because they are a few of the “special people” who were allowed in on this.

It sounds so fishy to me, but they think this is the next big thing but they can’t tell me what it is. Am I over-reacting? (A concerned son in Evansville).

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Kevin Wondrash

Christ calls laity to be ‘salt and light’

This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

Last week I happened to be in Jackson, Mississippi (for about 36 hours). Now, why would I go there? Was it because I had never been to Mississippi, and I had never tried their particular brand of Southern cooking?

Well . . . I’ll admit that was at the back of my mind . . . but I would never had made a special trip just for that reason. I went to Jackson for the ordination of their new bishop, Bishop Joseph Kopacz.

Bishop from same home parish

Bishop Kopacz is a great priest, about four years younger than I, who grew up with me in the same home parish near Scranton, Pennsylvania — St. Anthony’s in Dunmore.

Just imagine — two bishops from the same generation from the same home parish. If you would, I’d ask your prayers for him as he begins his new ministry in Jackson.

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